Carry on Camping, Canada
The Canadian Election, What We know So Far:
The skin on the right wing of the chicken is a little thin Boomers under attack Canadians know how to photoshop AND Conservatives propose wider roads on climate strike day
No kidding on the last one. Citing about 5% of a bar chart that shows emissions going down in the short term and ignoring the other 95% that shows emissions going up as more cars will use the wider roads, is what Andrew Scheer had to offer Greta Thunberg in Montreal, Friday.
Except Andy couldn’t attend the climate strike in Montreal because he was in the centre of the climate change-denying universe, Vancouver. You have to wonder what’s between the ears other than “make more babies” on a loop.
An awkward pause followed when it was pointed out, there just, might, possibly, be a march in the city of whack-a-doodle environmental nut jobs our leader-in-waiting could attend.
But hey, did you know the Greens got themselves into a bit of a hot water this week. Ignore this was an “ad/promo photo”, where you just might be creative, say, like the Conservatives using actors to warmly shake Andrew Scheer’s hand.
Like really, put that out of your mind (the Andrew Scheer bit too), because somewhere in Green Party heaven they decided to remove a paper cup with a plastic straw from a photo of leader Elizabeth May and replace it with a recyclable cup and metal straw.
Oh, the shame they brought the country with this act that rendered their policies null and void.
Ah, the all round silliness. Until I realized darker forces were at work. Yes, this was the evidence of foreign intervention in the environmental movement Jason Kenney has been waiting for. I called his informant hotline (a $30m piece of Gestapo McCarthyism) because no Canadian in their right mind would do something so stupid...
… except widening roads to reduce GHG emissions.
But that’s not the most stupid thing according to National Post columnist John Ivison, tarred in his Conservative feathers. That lay with Justin Trudeau’s $2,000 to families who want to go camping.
Imagine the headlines, if this was England.
Makes for a good tweet though and riles the boomers who see any penny going to those less advantageous than them as heresy. Scratch beneath the surface (and you can fact correct me) but it doesn’t seem too terrible compared to an Albertan snitch line. It awards up to $2,000 for the 75,000 poorest families in the country to experience the great outdoors (assuming they’re not already homeless).
Then the obvious hits, it’s a Justin Trudeau pledge, it’s 80% likely not to happen. Why get all steamed up? Indica your way out of this, people!
The best part of the week has been the millennials response to those who flip out at anything that might address their concerns. They have one simple word and spray it without hesitation, Boomer!
It’s weird but this is the most alienated I’ve been in an election, as a Gen X’r (without my own family) it’s somewhere between endangered species and ignored. Nothing seems to have changed since I was young. Politicians still don’t speak to youth, the unemployed, the homeless, the renters, the singles, and the scotch drinkers. It’s tiring and most of us know who we’ll vote for, if we vote at all. The rest don’t need several weeks of this nonsense to decide.
I have a solution. We can shorten the election, let the candidates base jump off the CN Tower and rattle off their policies on the way down. They can choose to do it without a parachute… and call it the courage of my conviction jump.
On this there is more to come.
But will leave you with this quote:
“The skin on the right wing of the chicken is a little thin.”
It’s the best line I’ll hear this election. The right side of the political spectrum dish it out like no other, but when it comes to taking it, not so much. It’s from a work colleague, a former broadcast journalist. He got into a public spat with a friend, a well-known Canadian politico last week. My eyes rolled when he told me who and defended this person as good (and reiterated it). There was a phone call, an apology.
An example Canada is not yet America or Britain. That is something we should know so far, and not forget.